1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for allocating and managing shelf space among rows of products being offered for sale and for moving those products in rows towards the front of the shelf.
2. Prior Art
In retail stores, particularly but not exclusively grocery stores, products are displayed on shelves for customer inspection and selection. It is essential that the products be organized on the shelves to maximize the use of shelf space. Furthermore, it is necessary to move the products continuously towards the front of the shelf so that customers can inspect the products and select those they desire to purchase. If the product is hidden towards the back of the shelf, or if product is disorganized and displayed chaotically or unattractively, then potential sales may be lost.
There is a prior art which addresses this problem. That prior art, however, involves relatively complex machines which advance products towards the front of the shelf using biasing mechanisms. Those machines are generally limited to a specific size product, are not easily changed in size to adapt to different sized products, and they fail to make maximum use of the store's shelving space.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,762,236; 4,830,201; 4,907,707 and 5,012,936 are all examples of the prior art. Those patents disclose complex mechanisms for advancing product rows, using spring-biased backstops which exert a constant pressure on the rearmost product. This constant biasing feature undesirable because many products cannot withstand the constant biasing pressure (such as loaves of broad, types of pasta, bags of fragile foods, such as potato chips, etc.). In addition, the presence of a constant spring-biased force pushing the product forward interferes with restocking of the product as it is exhausted. The person restocking the product must use one hand to defeat the biasing force, and will have only one hand with which to insert restocked product.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,079 754 discloses another complex arrangement which moves products towards the front of the shelf and, on arrival at the front, dispenses the product by pushing the product over the edge of the shelf. This arrangement is necessarily of use only where the storekeeper incorporates the device into a larger dispensing system. The vast majority of storekeepers have no such dispensing system.
These prior art systems are relatively expensive, cannot be used on a wide variety of shelves, do not maximize the amount of shelf space which can be used for products, and are not adaptable to a wide variety of product shapes and sizes.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art systems by providing a cost-effective shelf allocation system which is easily manufactured, inexpensive to purchase, quickly and easily adaptable to a wide variety of product shapes and sizes, and which can efficiently advance products towards the front of the shelf for customer inspection and selection. The present invention frees both hands of a restocking clerk because there is no spring-biasing force to defeat. In addition, the application discloses a loader which can be used to restock the shelf allocation and management system efficiently and quickly.